The Next-Generation Internet: Unsafe at Any Speed?

  • Authors:
  • Kenneth P. Birman

  • Affiliations:
  • -

  • Venue:
  • Computer
  • Year:
  • 2000

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Abstract

Users who need to run mission-critical applications on the Internet will require functionality unlikely to be available in the Next-Generation Internet (NGI). Traditionally, critical networked applications have exploited physical or logical separation to justify a style of reasoning that considers each application independently. Migrating systems to a shared network infrastructure, however, frequently means isolation loss, compromising the safety argument. Thus a means of achieving and validating safety for NGI applications is necessary. This requires devising a way to isolate applications from one another in shared settings.The author proposes a new networking isolation capability, termed a virtual overlay network, or VON. Although a VON offers a response to the reliability and security needs of critical applications, it would be prohibitively costly to implement using contemporary technologies. This article explains VONs and how extending an existing router feature and coupling it with well-understood group communication techniques could support VONs at low cost, with good scalability.